It’s always valuable to bear in mind what Kieslowski had to say about all of the main characters in The Dekalog — they don’t know why they are living. They don’t begin episodes in despair. In most cases, there’s no imminent crisis in their lives. But they lack purpose. The things that make their lives safe and predictable are the same things that have drained them of joy.

The letter has opened a chasm in their lives. How do they respond? Do they try to keep with the basic form of their days? The father-daughter relationship should remain intact regardless of paternity — no one else raised Anka. But there are subterranean thoughts and feelings that are coming to light. Do they confront or ignore them?

Their first instinct is avoidance. It’s the most natural human response to difficult emotions. Michal returns home, puts his bags down in his bedroom, doesn’t take off his jacket, can’t even bring himself to drop his carry on bag. He just sits in his chair, staring, trying not to notice the door swaying in the draft. In fact, he’s so stationary that the door is the only evidence the movie hasn’t frozen. Finally, he’s so annoyed by the swings that he kicks at the door and smashes the glass inside it.

Meanwhile, Anka goes to visit Jurek’s mom. They briefly cut back to Michal, still sitting, sighing. Anka inquires about marrying Jurek — his mother asks what her father thinks. She says he’s not my real father, it doesn’t matter anymore. We next see Anka in the apartment elevator. She runs into Michal as she’s about to exit. She stays on, he gets on the elevator, they are going up for no reason. He says he’s been looking for her (not likely true, he’s really just been frozen) while she says she lost her keys.

They realize they are on a pointless elevator ride now. Michal says he’s sorry, they embrace. When they get to the 4th floor, who do they run into, but the doctor from episode two. He asks if they are going down, they say yes. Anka asks if he knew. The doctor exits on the ground floor, they stay on. They head down to the basement.

Michal says “I suspected.” Then they have an awkward scene with a neighbor trying to load boxes onto the elevator in the basement, but Michal convinces Anka to exit there with him. Michal shows Anka some of her mother’s keepsakes from the basement storage, she pretends not to have seen them before.

She shows Anka the same picture of her mother with two men and another woman. Michal says he thinks one of the two men is her father, he doesn’t seem to know which one. She asks him how long he knew. She said he was never sure but always suspected.

Then Anka says that he lied to her (which is interesting for her to say, since she lied just a moment ago when she pretended not to know about the basement belongings … plus he still don’t know for sure what’s going on with the handwriting and that alternate envelope.) Michal said he planned to tell her, but at 10 she seemed too young, then at 15 seemed too old.

He then said that he didn’t think it would change things between them. Anka stares at him incredulously. She tells him he’s lying. She then points out the two burning candles in front of them. If the candle in front of her burns out, she gets to ask him any question. If the one in front of Michal burns out, he gets to ask the question.

This harkens back to all the gameplaying that was in episode 3. But it also introduces one of Kieslowski’s favorite themes — the role chance plays in our lives. His movie “Blind Chance” is about the three different lives a young man could have led based on whether he caught a train at a crucial moment in his life.

At this point, there is great mystery surrounding the past and future of Anka and Michal. But slowly, they are getting over their avoidance.